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 In a group of adults followed for 20 years, those who reported being
more active in their free time were less likely to need
hospitalization or treatment for an alcohol use disorder, but the
direction and explanation for the relationship is unclear.
“Although we and for that matter others have not proven a causal
relationship between physical activity and risk of developing
alcohol use disorders, it is likely that there is a causal link,”
said Dr. Ulrik Becker of the National Institute of Public Health at
the University of Southern Denmark in Copenhagen, coauthor of the
new report.
“We know from other studies that physical activity reduces the risk
of other psychiatric problems . . . as well as studies that seem to
show that physical activity increases the benefit of treatment in
alcohol use disorder patients,” Becker told Reuters Health by email.
Researchers used data from a series of four surveys mailed to more
than 18,000 adults in Copenhagen between 1976 and 2003, including
questions about their leisure time physical activity, medications,
alcohol use and smoking.
The researchers divided respondents into three groups based on
leisure-time activity level: high levels of activity (more than four
hours per week), low levels (two to four hours per week), and
sedentary. About half of the respondents reported high levels of
activity throughout the study. In 1976, 20 percent reported being
sedentary, which decreased to 10 percent in 2001.
The researchers linked these questionnaire responses to national
patient registries of all people given outpatient treatment or
admitted to a hospital for an alcohol use disorder in Denmark
through 2011.
By the end of the study, 736 people, or four percent of the original
group, had been diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder. People who
reported low or high levels of leisure time activity had similar
risks for an alcohol use disorder, but people in the sedentary group
had a higher risk, the authors write in Alcohol and Alcoholism.
Men and women who reported at least low levels of physical activity
were 30 to 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with an alcohol
use disorder than those in the sedentary group.
Activity at work was not associated with alcohol use disorders, the
authors write.
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“These results strengthen the general recommendation of increased
physical activity and add to the long list of beneficial effects of
physical activity,” Becker said.
Likely more than half of what determines alcohol use disorders is
genetic, but environmental factors, like physical activity, are also
important, he said.
“It’s an interesting observational study and demonstrates there’s
some correlation,” said Michael T. French, who was not part of the
new study but directs the Health Economics Research Group at the
University of Miami.
French studied a large group of U.S. adults in 2009 and found that
heavier drinkers tended to exercise more, which does not align with
the new results.
“Like the study of ours, the most you can say is that there seems to
be an association,” French told Reuters Health by phone. Their
findings may have differed because French’s study included a range
of alcohol use, whereas Becker’s study was limited to the most
extreme drinkers who ended up hospitalized, he said.
“They are hypothesizing that less physical activity or a sedentary
lifestyle is going to affect your risk of an alcohol use disorder,”
French said. “It’s equally possible that acquiring a disorder is
going to lead to a sedentary lifestyle.”
“They decided they’re going to look at physical activity as
predictors, but we thought it was more plausible to look in the
other direction,” he said.
French stressed that at this point, trying to explain why activity
influences alcohol disorders, or vice versa, is only conjecture.
“It’s an interesting topic, worth exploring, but I would be cautious
when interpreting the results,” he said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1FvDo1v Alcohol and Alcoholism, online
December 27, 2014.
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